WMC’s $9.8 Billion Debt to the State

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce
(WMC), the state’s big business lobbying group, costs the state about
$31 a second. That’s because WMC’s proposalsfrom slashing corporate
income taxes to opposing insurance coverage of wigs for cancer
patients would have cost the state more than $9.8 billion since 2001
if all of the proposals had worked out in WMC’s favor. Those figures
can be found at the WMC Watch Web site (www.wmcwatch.org), a new
database set up by the Institute for One Wisconsin. The group added up
the cost of the bills supported and opposed by WMC since 2001, then
crunched the numbers.

It found that WMC’s agenda has cost each
man, woman and child in the state $1,800. And the number is growing
with each minute. The site also lists WMC’s “cheerleaders”legislators
who have sided with WMC and are responsible for this $9.8 billion bill.
They include state Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), Sen. Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield), state Rep. Mark Honadel (R- South Milwaukee), Rep. Suzanne Jeskewitz (R-Menomonee Falls), Rep. Ann Nischke (R-Waukesha) and Rep. Jeff Stone (R- Greendale). Former Brookfield legislator ScottJensen also scored 100% before his felony conviction for misconduct in office.

JS Supporting Race-Baiting Gableman Ad?: It’s been tough to find balanced reporting on the campaign for the state Supreme Court in Milwaukee’s
daily newspaper. The race pits incumbent Justice Louis Butler, an
African-American former judge from Milwaukee, against Burnett County
Judge Michael Gableman. The race has been tainted by heavy special
interest ads and misleading statements about the candidates’ records
and the role of the state’s highest court. So what does the Journal Sentinel do?
Repeat the claims and support the notion that Supreme Court justices
are crime fighters. They are notbut crime is the subject of every TV
ad because it’s so inflammatory.

The Journal Sentinel had
a perfect opportunity to set the record straight this week, after a
race-baiting, misleading, Gableman-sponsored TV ad hit the airwaves.
(“TV ad by Gableman comes out swinging” the paper trumpeted last week.)

On Monday the ad was denounced by everyone from right-wing talker
Charlie Sykes to the head of the State Bar to the governor. But the JS buried
the story in the Metro section, with the headline “NAACP decries
campaign ad.” The article contains no mention of the legal community’s
denunciation of the ad and its calls for Gableman to pull it from the
airwaves. Nor did an editorial appear in Tuesday’s edition to call
attention to the sleaziness of Gableman’s claims.

Instead, the state’s largest paper gave it a pass.

JusticeProsser Won’t Rule on Church Sex Abuse Cases: State Supreme Court JusticeDavidProsser
has recused himself from two cases the court will hear that involve the
Catholic Church and child sex abuse. Yet in 2005, Prosser wrote the
majority opinion for a case that favored the church against victims,
saying that the statute of limitations for cases had expired.

And
back in the 1970s, when he was the district attorney of Outagamie
County, he declined to prosecute a priest who was accused of child
molestation. Thirty years later, the same priest was convicted of those
charges. Prosser, a former Republican Assembly leader, was appointed to
the bench by then-Gov. Tommy Thompson in 1998. He won election to a
10-year term in 2001.

Special Ed Settlement Scuttled: The
Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) rejected a proposed settlement of a
class action lawsuit regarding special education students, saying that
MPS was cut out of the final negotiations. MPS had been working with
the state Department of Instruction (DPI) to come to terms with the
advocacy group Disability Rights Wisconsin. But MPS said that DPI
negotiated a settlement favorable to its own interests and stuck
MPSand city of Milwaukee
taxpayerswith the cost of implementing the plan. In a statement, MPS
Board President Peter Blewett said, “We were shocked that the
settlement was hatched in secret with no inclusion of MPS
negotiatorsespecially since DPI has made it clear that Milwaukee taxpayers will be responsible for the costs.” The board has called for further negotiations.

Looking for Ace/Co. Workers: Milwaukee’s
Aluminum Casting & Engineering Co., known as Ace/Co., must dispense
back pay to current and former employees because it intimidated workers
during a union organizing campaign in 1995. The funds, which are being
distributed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), are available
to people who were employees of Ace/Co. in 1995$1,250 for each
employee. Those who may be eligible for back pay should call Richard
Neuman at the NLRB at 297-3819.

End the War Now: More
than 600 people gathered Downtown in 34-degree weather last Saturday to
protest the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Not only did they send a strong message to war supporters, but they got to hear some amazing speeches.

Father Simon Harak, of MarquetteUniversity’s
Center for Peacemaking, questioned the $480 billion being spent on the
war, and called for bringing the troops home while improving living
conditions in the United States.
“Let’s bring the spirit of America back home,” he said. Rep. Gwen Moore
talked about congressional efforts to end the war and said she’ll only
authorize funds that go toward diplomacy and getting the troops out.
She also said she signed on to the impeachment initiative because “it’s
an act of patriotism.” Will Williams, of Vets for Peace, focused on
young people who are being preyed on by military recruiters. “If we
want peace,” Williams told the crowd, “we have to fight for peace.” And GeorgeMartin,
of Peace Action Wisconsin, got everyone fired up by declaring, “This is
what America looks like.”

If you couldn’t make it to that rally, the
seventh Iraq
Moratorium event will be held on Friday, March 21. The 5 p.m. vigil
will be held at Water Street and Wisconsin Avenue, part of nationwide
protests against the war.

“Blackwater” Author to Speak: Milwaukee
native Jeremy Scahill, author of the definitive book on Blackwater, the
controversial private military contractors, will deliver the first
Frank P. Zeidler Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, March 25, in Centennial
Hall of the Milwaukee Public Library, 733 N. Eighth St. Doors open at 7
p.m. and the lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m.

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